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Iron-willed world No.2 Maria Sharapova got positive in the nick of time on Wednesday, escaping with the tightest of second-round Australian Open victories over little-known Russian compatriot Alexandra Panova.
Panova led 4-1 in the final set and then held a pair of match points in the 10th game, both of which Sharapova saved with blazing forehand winners.
With world No.150 Panova’s self-belief draining by the minute, Sharapova seized the moment and went on to win 6-1 4-6 7-5 in a match lasting more than two and a half hours.
“I was dwelling too much on my mistakes, what I was doing wrong, not really being in the present, something that I’m really usually good at,” said Sharapova.
“At that point, when you’re behind and you feel like you’re making a lot of errors, you don’t feel like you have a good rhythm out there.
“I just really tried to take it a point at a time, think positively and change my thought process.”
Panova acknowledged she had let slip a golden opportunity.
“She came up with the good shots, with the winners, but what could I do?” said the qualifier.
“I should have played even better to keep the momentum.
“But she’s a great fighter, a great champion.
“To take it from her, you really need something extra.”
Sharapova admitted she know next to nothing about the 25-year-old Panova, whose first victory at grand slam level had come only two days ago against Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.
Sharapova twice double-faulted on break point in the second set and also struggled with her serve early in the decider before regaining the initiative, setting up a third-round encounter against another opponent she knows very little about – Kazakhstan’s No.31 seed Zarina Diyas, who beat Slovakia’s Anna Schmiedlova 3-6 6-2 8-6.
“Today was a tough day but I pulled through and I guess at this point that’s what matters,” said the second-seeded Sharapova.
“It certainly gives me a large amount of confidence that I didn’t play my best tennis and was able to come through.”
It was the second time in as many years that Sharapova had been pushed to the brink against an unfancied opponent in the second round of the Open.
Last year, she and Italy’s Karin Knapp slugged it out for three and half hours in extreme heat before the Russian prevailed 10-8 in the decider.
Sharapova is now unbeaten in six matches in 2015, having begun the year with victory at the Brisbane International.
Canadian pin-up Eugenie Bouchard looms as the world No.2’s first big-name challenger after the seventh seed thrashed Dutchwoman Kiki Berterns 6-0 6-3 in her second-round match.
Russian Ekaterina Makarova, the No.10 seed, also won through to the third round with a minimum of fuss on Wednesday, beating Italian veteran Roberta Vinci 6-2 6-4.
Her reward was a third-round clash with in-form No.22 Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic, who was pushed all the way by teenaged French wildcard Oceane Dodin before winning 7-5 5-7 6-4.
Italian No.14 seed Sara Errani did enough to see off the challenge of Spaniard Silvia Soler-Espinosa and win 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.
Late-blooming Peng Shuai from China was the first player through to the third round, the No.21 seed trouncing Magdalena Rybarikova from Slovakia 6-1 6-1.
The 28-year-old Peng recorded her best grand slam result at last year’s US Open when she advanced to the semi-finals before going down to former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki.
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